Monday, November 30, 2009

Happy Monday! And we're officially in the Christmas season! Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.

I find the best way to enjoy the Holidays is to get all my shopping and gifts done as early as possible. So, this weekend I've been working on gifts for some of our neighbors and friends. I'm not making these for everyone. But, for some families that we know and love that have kids the right age at home, I decided it would be fun to make Snowman kits! I live in an area that has long, cold winters with plenty of snow. Perfect for lots of snowmen!

I bought a bag full of little black, glass gems at Hobby Lobby when they were 50% off....two pounds of them for under a dollar. I also had some bigger, multicolored gems I got at the dollar store a long time ago. I used the black stones for eyes and mouth and the colored for buttons.

My one problem with snowmen, is that the rocks we typically stick on for the face never stay in place. Do other people have that issue? Anyway, I thought of a way to remedy that and make sure these rocks are easy to place and super secure....golf tees! I used E6000 to glue a golf tee to the back of every rock. I just got a bag of golf tees at Walmart. I think it was $4 for way more than I'll need.

I also bought a remnant piece of red fleece from Joann's to cut out scarves. I just cut a strip off and cut notches at each end.

I used #10 tin cans that I've been saving as we empty them for the containers. There are a million different ways to decorate these...scrapbook paper, die cuts, stamps, ribbons...you name it. I decided to go super simple and easy and just use wrapping paper. The wrapping paper I had leftover from last year happened to be covered in snowmen. Perfect! I used double sided tape to hold it on.

Added a ribbon for some embellishment (which I got after Christmas at Hobby Lobby last year for like a quarter a roll) and this poem...

"There's nothing like a snowmanto make a person smile,His charcoal eyes and happy mouthand scarf with so much style.Here's a little gift from usto get your snowman going.Just add a hat, some arms, a noseand, most important....Snow!"Contents: 7 black rocks for eyes and mouth,3 large rocks for buttons, 1 scarf

I could have put in a plastic carrot for the nose, but I'm trying to keep this cheap and haven't been able to find any at a good enough price. I thought about just chopping up a dowel rod and spraying it orange...still considering it. Any ideas? As it stands, there is no nose. But, the kids need to use their imagination too, right? (We usually end up with an orange crayon or marker for our nose).

Very cute idea! I was thinking about the carrot...my sister made carrot ornaments by cutting out with a jig saw, carrot shapes and then dremeling the carrots to look more dimensional. It may be too much work and wouldn't work with no access to tools, but would be cheap and cute!:)

i used a small green foam cone in the floral department and painted it orange. i put 4 golf tees on the back--it's perfect! i also made big googly eyes with eyelashes so the larger nose will be ok. thanks for the idea. my son has a secret santa thing at school. the girl who he chose to wrote that one of her favorite things to do is make snowmen. this will be one of his gifts he gives to her.